The Collin County Observer

Self opposes court on bond proposals
By Brandi Hart, McKinney Courier-Gazette
Tuesday, September 11, 2007 2:47 AM CDT

The Collin County Commissioners Court is not presenting its typical unified front for the Nov. 6 bond election as County Judge Keith Self is asking people to vote against all three proposals.

The bond election includes $235.6 million in transportation projects, $17 million in open space projects and $76.3 million in county facilities.

The four commissioners voted for all three bond proposals to be included in the election. However, Self voted against the proposals because he wanted the majority of the money spent on federal and state highways in the county.

“The entire $328.9 million bond amount is $60 million above what we can afford. It’s either going to take our debt service payment from 5.5 percent, which is the traditional level we set our bonds, to increase, cause us to pull money out of the surplus maintenance and operating funds, or raise taxes,” Self said.

He would rather substitute pass-through financing for U.S. 75 for the transportation bond proposal, Self said.

If the bond election fails and the cities have to raise taxes to pay for the proposed road projects, Self said that would be a city issue as his job as county judge is to look over the county issues. “That’s up to the cities. I’m not going to get into city policies. I need to focus on county issues,” Self said.

Commissioner Jerry Hoagland said he and Commissioner Joe Jaynes will meet with mayors of cities who presented projects for the transportation bond proposal at 3 p.m. Friday and at 7 p.m. Monday at the Collin County Association of Realtors office in Plano to discuss promoting the bond proposals. Commissioner Jack Hatchell and Commissioner Phyllis Cole have been asked to attend the Monday meeting. Hoagland said only two commissioners or less may attend the meetings so there is not a quorum of commissioners present. He wishes Self had not asked people to vote against the bond election, Hoagland said.

“I wish he hadn’t done that, but that’s certainly his prerogative. He’s going to have some impact on the bond package. For him to say that eight cities are not represented in the bond election is deceptive. He knows better than that. The eight cities were sent letters asking for them to submit proposals, but their tax base is not significant enough in their cities for them to participate,” Hoagland said.

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